


The Long Road Home

by bleu_bee



Series: All Roads Lead to Home [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Critical Role (Web Series) RPF
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Self-Acceptance, Self-Indulgent, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-11-01 17:52:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17871974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bleu_bee/pseuds/bleu_bee
Summary: You know them. You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t. Or maybe you’ve just stumbled upon our little story. Either way, you’ve come upon this story of Hero’s, of Villains, of Legends, and of a world off its axis. That might be a bit generous, but I can say now, with all certainty, these seven are the messiest, nerdiest, and without a doubt, best band of hero’s I’ve happened across. They saved my life and possibly your own. You know this, and what you don’t know, well, we’ll get there. For now, I’ve been getting a bit ahead of myself. We should begin, it’s late anyhow.





	The Long Road Home

You know them. You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t. Or maybe you’ve just stumbled upon our little story. Either way, you’ve come upon this story of Hero’s, of Villains, of Legends, and of a world off its axis. That might be a bit generous, but I can say now, with all certainty, these seven are the messiest, nerdiest, and without a doubt, best band of hero’s I’ve happened across. They saved my life and possibly your own. You know this, and what you don’t know, well, we’ll get there. For now, I’ve been getting a bit ahead of myself. We should begin, it’s late anyhow.

 

◊

 

When I woke it was to inky blackness, to pressure, to a sting in my eye. There was no sound and then slowly, little by little, something my mind couldn’t grasp at. It was familiar and entirely alien. That was until I pulled in and instead of air my nostrils and windpipes burst into flame, salt water rushing in and setting me alight. My sleep idled brain snapped to then and desperately I squeezed my eyes shut and began to claw my way towards what I believed was up.

My arms drug against the darkness, filling my ears with a monstrous thrashing. My legs kicked out of time, and I half jerked half pulled them along and up, my body burning for rest. Worst of all my lungs and throat ached more and more, the fire stoked by the work my body put forth. I desperately wished to clear the water from lungs, to feel air on my face, to be home in bed. Why wasn’t I home in bed?

Right as my mind was about to give in and my body nearly gave out, I broke the surface of the water and pried my eyes open once more, thrashing about to turn myself quickly as I sputtered up the water that had rushed me. I cursed the feeling of my shirt clinging to my arms and kicked my booted feet as hard as I could, spinning quickly in the water as I scanned around for any sign of land, life, or-

Or a boat.

A little way away a boat sat perfectly still on the water and I allowed myself to hack up what liquid still resided in my lungs and to just float for a moment before I called out.

“Help…” My voice was hardly more than a whisper and I grimaced at the distortion; whisper or not, what had come from my chest was a garish ghost of what it had once been. I pulled a few deep breaths before willing myself to move towards it. I swam slow, watching carefully the dark water around me and the stars that floated on its surface. A nightmare. This was a nightmare, one that hurt like it was life. As I came closer, I called again, a voice finding itself though again it wasn’t my own. “Hey! Help!”

This time it found its way to someone’s ears and a shape peered over the banister of the ship before quickly disappearing. All sorts of noises followed its disappearance, yells and bangs and a cacophony that I let pass me. I had been seen, all I had to do was keep moving. They’d help… Hopefully. And if they did not then this nightmare would be over sooner than expected.

By the time I had reached the bottom of the ship, they’d thrown down a rope ladder and I hooked myself into it, trembling as they began to heave me up. It felt like an eternity before I was aboard, sputtering and heaving with my forehead pressed to the wood of the deck, but there I was. I coughed and drug one last deep breath before turning my head to the side.

When my eyes focused, they landed on the giant Tortle who was currently leaning down to meet my gaze, and that was it. Everything faded out as I let my exhaustion take me over.

 

◊

 

When I woke next, my eyes hardly burned, there was soft noise abound, and the room was alight with golden rays. I breathed slowly and blinked a few times, my body sinking in comfort to the bed beneath me and allowing myself a moment to appreciate the peace. That was until the lapping of waves rushed through my skull and a glance around the cabin showed no familiar signs of home.

I sat upright with a gasp, lunging to move before stopping in my tracks. My hand… I looked down at my left and then the right. Yellow. They were both bright yellow.

I rushed to a mirror and found yellow there too, my face, but… it wasn’t _my_ face. I grit my teeth and the mirror showed the same. My yellow hands traced my yellow cheeks and the mirror showed me that. It showed me orange eyes and my hair, darker than I had had it in years. I pulled at the blue-black strands, it was mine but not. I licked my finger and rubbed my cheek; the color didn’t fade. The mirror showed me horns, curved close to my head and jutting back before splitting off. I stared for a long time, memorizing a face that wasn’t mine but was me before I stepped back and looked down.

My chest was all but gone, my belly too. I was a ropey little thing and I felt my throat grow tight though I couldn’t place why. A tail, yellow as the rest of me whipped past my leg and I nearly buckled then, but the door opened before I could be consumed and instead shifted my focus.

The tortle poked his head in before nodding to himself and strolling in.

“Good to see you’re awake, er…” I stood in silence as he scanned me for some sort of answer. “Kid.” Kid… I could work with kid. He nodded towards the end of the bed. “Get your boots and your wits about you and follow me up, Captain is returning. Figure it best for you to meet the man who may or may not be allowing you to stay on his ship.” When I didn’t immediately move, he stepped in and made a large sweeping motion. “Come on now, we can’t keep you hidden. I certainly won’t. Too much effort,” He grumbled half to himself.

I took a fast seat and threw my shoes on, feeling suddenly wound tight as a spring once more. My brain flitted back and forth between my anxiousness and the feeling that I had heard this voice before. Somewhere.

Right. I was on a boat, I was yellow, there was a giant talking turtle who sounded vaguely familiar, and above all I wasn’t dead… I did give myself a quick pinch and poke to double check, nope, everything seemed to be in working order. I stood quickly afterwards and looked at him with a face that must have been lost somewhere between dread and bewilderment.

“Come on now kid, I’ll hardly be the wildest thing you see today.” He turned and began making his way out, I found myself keeping a comfortable distance at his heels. I couldn’t have been more grateful for his slowed pace, his lack of need to physically drag me to wherever our destination was, and how he hadn’t yet found it necessary to pull my voice from me. He only commented as we made our journey- “Not much of a talker, eh? You’ll be good company compared to the lot of these noise makers,” and huffed out a laugh.

 It wasn’t long until we hit the main stretch of deck and I found myself quickening, anxious to get out of the way of the crew and not get hit as my eyes adjusted to the bright light of day. I tried to focus on the Tortle’s back, eyes tracing the bits of instrument that poked from his shell, but found my gaze turning to the edge of the ship and beyond. Bright water stretched for miles around us, land a whisper on the horizon… possibly, from this distance it could’ve just as well been clouds or a trick of the light.

I felt my gut drop to the wood below and raced through my memories of the night before.

When I fell asleep, I was in bed, in my dorm room, at school. At a completely landlocked school. I fell asleep not banana yellow and no horns, there were no six-foot-tall turtles that spoke, and there weren’t pirates. Not any with wooden ships and masts and sails as far as I knew, none that looked like this.

And maybe it should have been then that I understood that I was a far way off from home, maybe I should’ve known the world was off it’s axis, maybe I should’ve known the impossible had become real, tangible, physical.

My dumbass didn’t put two and two together until the Tortle stopped suddenly and I gathered myself enough to not run into him and peered around his shell. There by the banister of the ship stood a group of seven and I blinked wildly, even rubbing my eyes a bit, still there they stood talking amongst themselves. I managed to pull myself back behind the man’s shell before one of the party members peeled away from the group, Fjord.

When I dared peek again, all I caught was a glimpse of his back before Orly shifted to look at me.

“Stay here, or stay out of trouble, whichever comes first.” I answered his command with a nod, watching as he made his way back to the helm and turning my eyes back to the group as soon as possible. There they all were, sopping wet but as lively as ever. Jester and Beau talking about something my ears couldn’t catch, Nott popping into the conversation while Caduceus stood over them smiling. Caleb shifted away in favor of peering after Fjord and the water, and Yasha took up the rear. My eyes flicked from one to another to another again and again, noting detail after detail, pinching myself so hard that when I happened a glance the divots left were an unnatural purple.

I moved a step or two closer to the helm, half expecting the faces I was memorizing to morph or shift. Nope, they stayed the same. And it was then, as I shifted my gaze once more, I found myself frozen like a deer in headlights. I had been spotted.

Yasha, ever stoic, was holding my gaze from a decent way across the ship. It occurred to me for the first time since I had woken up that I wasn’t wearing my glasses or contacts, and I had a moment to marvel at that before she began to move. The others didn’t seem to notice, and I felt my tail curl close around my leg as my nerves once again jumped. What the hell was I gonna say? What would anyone say in this position? Was I going to be thrown off? No, Yasha wouldn’t… Right?

I hadn’t the time to figure that out before she brushed past me, looking back only to nod at me to follow. I cast a glance back at the group and to the helm, searching for some clue of what to do before giving in. What the hell, right? I rushed to catch up, ducking down as best I could lest I draw more attention from the other’s or Orly.

She led me down a bit, stairs creaking as we went, and into what I believed was the kitchen or at the very least some sort of eatery. With a curt nod at the sparse tables in the room she made her way to the cooking area.

I got the hint well enough, she was offering me a seat. I graciously took the one closest to her and watched like a hawk as she took a knife, whether it was one of hers or the kitchens I couldn’t tell, and cut a few slices from one of the loaves. She did the same to a bit of cheese and when she came back to me, she placed a plate and cup on the table, not sitting until she’d gathered up her own and set it all before her own seat.

She dug in to her bread, managing a decent crater before she raised a brow at my lack of appetite.

“It’s food.” Her voice was like a low rumble and the familiarity struck a spark of excitement in me. Ashley was so rarely there but still, just under the surface I could hear her. For the first time I cracked a grin and huffed a laugh.

“Yes, I know what food is.” My own voice still struggled to be more than a whisper and even more-so I struggled to find familiarity in it. “Just curious is all.” She considered this for a moment, nodding to herself before flicking her eyes back at me.

“Ah, you seemed faint.” She said blankly. “Like you’d seen a ghost.” I considered that right back before nodding, lifting the cup and drinking fast. Luck would have it that water filled the glass and not ale, and I could’ve cried at how it soothed my throat. I tore into the food after that, abandoning quickly any pretense of appearances. Confusion and adrenaline had wired me so that I hadn’t felt the ache of my body, but as I sat now, I could feel it crash into me in droves. “So, when did you join us?”

I struggled a bite down, gulping down more of the water before I found my voice again.

“Last night. I believe, unless I’ve slept more than a day.” I hadn’t even hesitated, it was the truth. “But last night I believe.” I looked at her nervously but when she didn’t question how I had come to find them in the middle of the sea in the middle of the night I turned back to finish my meal, letting the silence stretch until I had finished. “Do you think…” She raised a brow as she finished up her own plate, letting me take the time I needed to find the right words. “Do you think they’ll throw me overboard?” As I said it, in a crest of stupidity it dawned on me for the first time-

“I don’t know,” she offered quietly before slipping on a small smile, “but I don’t think so.”

I was here below the deck of the Ball Eater aboard ship with the Mighty Nien, one of the most powerful groups with some of the most powerful magic users of this world. If I was going to be here, if it wasn’t a dream, then I was exactly where I needed to be. I offered a small smile back and bowed my head.

“Thank you…?” I left the tail end hang as a question for her name. I knew it, but she’d already let me slide with not questioning how I had gotten here. I wasn’t about to press my luck. Though I did scramble to think of a name to offer back.

“Yasha.” She took the dishes back up and put them away. “And you?” I searched the room for any hint but found little in the low light.

“N… Noctis.” Well, of course it wasn’t. But a little irony was always fun, right? It was then the creak of the stairs sounded out and Beau’s voice met us.

“No, all I’m saying is I don’t think the octopus over half the face could be comfortable, I’m not judging-“

“Maybe it is comfortable Beau, have you tried it?” Jesters voice followed.  

“Well, no-“

I watched at they rounded into the room, Beau and Caleb with Jester following suit and a Caduceus very quietly coming in a moment or two after the rest. Jester was the first to react, gasping and rushing ahead of the two humans. My tail waved tight behind me, moving out of her path thankfully before she came to a stop by me, looking incredulously at Yasha and then myself and waving her hands about in small excited ways.

“Yasha! Who!” Was all she managed, looking giddy. The two humans caught up with their brows raised and glancing at each other. Caduceus lumbered through, only casting a brief look our way before saying-

“Well, isn’t that nice?” I couldn’t help but smile. I was giddy too, exited and terrified, but so excited.

“Who is our… sunspot friend here?” Caleb pried, glancing me over before turning to Yasha. She in turn nodded back to me and it took an embarrassing moment for me to realize she wanted me to introduce myself.

“Ah! Sorry. I’m Noctis. It’s very nice to meet you.” I hardly had time to breath before Jester had taken my hand and begun shaking it enthusiastically with a small noise of glee. She popped down in the seat next to me, still holding my hand.

“Tell us everything! Where are you from? How did you get here? Would you like a tattoo? Your horns are so cute!” Just barely I could here Caleb huff what could have been considered a small laugh as he passed, though I could hardly look away from the energetic woman in front of me.

“Jess, slow down, grab some- oh” She was interrupted by the large firbolg placing a plate in front of Jester and another handed to herself. “Thanks ‘duceus.”

“Anytime.” Was all he drawled out before heading back for more. Beau also plopped down into a seat at an adjacent table, joined by Caleb a few moments later.

“So, you two know each other?” Beau asked looking between Yasha and myself. I shook my head and caught Yasha doing the same when I glanced over.

“Just the kindness of a stranger,” I offered, smiling softly.

“Apparently they joined us last night.” I supposed I should’ve been more focused right off the bat, but I couldn’t help the bloom of happiness that burst in my chest when Yasha called me They. It was silly, it was small, but still, worth every second of diverted attention. When I came back to focus on the room, I watched the gears turning as they mulled over what information they had been given. I hadn’t- This wasn’t a part of the story I was entirely familiar with, I wasn’t entirely sure what to say to convince them or ease myself into their world. It… It made sense to be _here_ if I were to be here at all, but how the hell do you tell them that?

“Weren’t we-“ Beau began.

“Under all night? Yes.” Caleb chimed in between a bite.

“Ah, That’s… convenient.” I sat a little straighter at that, anxiety flooding my form. Caduceus sat at the other table along with Caleb and Beau, still as chipper as ever.

“Well then, how did you happen upon our little ship?” He said with a look so utterly Taliesin it was hard to believe it wasn’t him for a moment; soft smile, relaxed or tired eyes, resting his cheek in his hand. I took a breath and all at once felt the eyes of the room shift to me. I explained to them as I explained to you, as true as it could be.

 “Do you remember how you got into the water? Or before that at all?” Jester looked to me with large eyes, a small worried frown etched on her face. I shook my head before making a small face.

“I… Yes, I do but it’s… strange. It’ll sound crazy.” I cast a worried look around the room, though no one seemed completely thrown yet, a sign that let my heart stop racing quite so painfully.

“Crazy’s our camp, I’d say.” Caduceus reassured me before turning his attention seemingly on his food, though I still felt he was listening intently. I took another breath and rung my hands together in a vice grip, mind grappling to find the right words.

“When I went to bed last night, I was… well, I was at my school in bed. I was very much on land. My school… it’s nothing special, no magic, no training. Just a school, with books. I went to bed in a normal bed, far from any water, far from any magic. I shouldn’t have woken here, wherever here is, but I did.” As I said it, again the excitement faded away almost entirely, and fear took hold. I shouldn’t have been _here_ , yet here I was. In an entirely different world, away from my mom, my sister, my dad, my roommates, my friends. Had I just vanished? Had I died? I pulled another breath, feeling tears prick my eyes and my form began to tremble. I pulled my arms in tight and clasped my hands around them to try and keep still. “I don’t know if anyone even knows if I’m gone, my mom, my friends. I don’t know how to get home… but I do know you all are the best shot I’ve got. If you’ll pardon the pun, you’re also the only ship in the harbor.” I let out a huff of a laugh but had to wipe at my cheeks quickly, a hot flash of embarrassment running down my spine.

A quick look around revealed a few sympathetic looks and I forced my eyes away, feeling suddenly ill with nerves and guilt. Jester rested a hand on my shoulder gently and leaned her head down to meet my gaze.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay. We’ll figure it out, okay? And we’ll get you home to your mama. I swear it.” She held out her pinky and I gently took it with my own, a small smile forcing its way through the fear. “It may take a little bit though because we’re kinda right in the middle of the whole big thing for our friend Fjord- but do not worry.” I couldn’t help but huff a laugh, nerves ebbing more and more.

They had shown me kindness, just as they had done to many before. Something, despite the whirlpool of emotions, told me I had to be here. I was meant to be here. There was something I had to do. Why else would I have been a world away from home?

“Yeah, we should probably work on telling Nott and Fjord that, huh?”

And that was how I found myself starring down Captain Tusktooth and his Gunman across an old worn desk far below the deck of the Ball Eater.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading this far! I started this project a couple months back to help process some mental health and general life changes and it's begun to bloom into something I'm very excited about. I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I did writing and hopefully I'll see you for the next part.  
> Thank you again!


End file.
